You can use many different activities to teach science.
"Hands-on" is a way to describe most elementary school students' approach to life in general. Children of this age usually are very interested in their surroundings and eager to jump in and get involved with all sorts of activities. When you are teaching science, you can make your subject material come to life by introducing various science-related activities to your students. When you engage your students, they are much more likely to be interested and to gain an understanding of what you are teaching them.
Plant Systems
This activity teaches elementary school students about how plants use their roots to draw moisture from the ground. Talk to your class first about plants and their various parts. Explain how roots absorb water from the ground and send it throughout the plant. Fill several different clear containers with water. You can use beakers or clear plastic cups. Drop a few drops of food coloring into all of the containers except one. Use a different color for each container. Place a stalk of celery into each container after you have snipped off about one-half inch from the bottom of each stalk. Ask your students to guess what will happen to the celery stalks. Leave the celery stalks in the containers for a few days. After several days, have your students discuss what happened to the celery. They should be able to see how the water has moved up through the stalks, as evidenced by the color that is now present.
Weather
This activity allows students to see how a cloud is formed. Tape a piece of black construction paper around half of a glass jar. Fill a small plastic bag with ice and seal it. Fill a measuring cup with one-third of a cup of hot water from your tap. Pour this water into the jar. Strike a match and hold it inside the jar for as long as you can and then drop it into the water inside the jar. Immediately cover the jar with the plastic bag that is filled with ice. Shine a flashlight into the jar. You should be able to see "clouds" forming inside the jar. You may have to repeat this experiment several times so that all of your students have a chance to get close enough to see the clouds. For an even more dramatic effect, you can turn off the lights in the classroom when you do this activity. Discuss with your class how this represents the heating, evaporation and condensation of water, which are all parts of the process of forming clouds.
Sound Science
Explain how sound travels in invisible waves, and tell your students that you can prove the existence of these waves. Have one student hold a hand drum (about as big as a dinner plate) flat with the membrane side of the drum facing upward. Instruct the student to hold this drum with one hand on each side of it. Sprinkle some uncooked rice onto the head of this drum. Hold another drum a few inches away from the first drum. Position the head of the second drum so that it is pointing toward the first drum. Begin striking the second drum with a mallet. You should see the rice jump around on the head of the first drum due to the sound waves from the second drum hitting it. You also may be able to see the rice jump from sound vibrations if you place the drum near a speaker through which relatively loud music with a strong bass line is playing.
Tags: your students, first drum, second drum, about plants, about plants their, celery stalks